South Korean hotels offer increasingly more halal meals

Five-star hotels in South Korea boosted the number of Muslim-friendly restaurants.

Referring to the Korean Yonhap news agency, Anadolu Agency reports that South Korean local tourism agencies, as well as five-star hotels operating in the East Asian country, have increased the range of foods which are prepared according to Islamic dietary law for Muslim tourists coming mostly from Middle Eastern countries.

The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) classified all five-star restaurants operating in the country as ''Muslim-friendly restaurants.''

Korean hotels which provide the Quran to their guests reportedly noted an increase of 10 percent in the number of their Muslim hosts over the past years.

According to figures released by KTO, over 750,000 Muslims traveled to South Korea in 2014, up from 540,000 in 2012.

Islam was re-introduced in the Korean peninsula by the Turkish Brigade in 1950, which fought the Korean War under the command of the United Nations.

In addition to their contributions on the battlefield, the Turks also aided Koreans in humanitarian work, helping to operate war-time schools for war orphans and taught Islam to Koreans. Today an estimated 130,000 Muslims live in South Korea.